Heart of Ice
by Alatariel4488
Summary: The lives that Rose and the Doctor lead can turn from fun and ordinary to deadly serious in an instant of time. One mistake is all it takes for their world to come crashing down... A one-shot about one such adventure gone horribly wrong.


**Author's Note:** Fair warning: This story is pointless, plotless and absolutely ridiculous, but it is full of angst. I am a sucker for angst and hurt/comfort, and my brain tends to come up with the absolute worst scenarios you can possibly imagine and then forces me to write them. So, if that sounds like something you would enjoy then dive in!

 **Ice**

"Ok, there should be a door to your right. Big, yellow one, you can't miss it."

"Yeah, I see the door Doctor."

"Good, yes. Go in."

"I kind of figured that," Rose replied sarcastically as she turned the large handle and, with an effort, managed to push the heavy door open. The room that opened up before her looked exactly like all the other ones she had come through: small, yellow and crowded with one other door on the opposite side of the room. It actually seemed smaller and more crowded, if that was possible.

"You through?"

"Yeah, the door was jus' a little heavier, that's all. So, let me guess: I go to the next door and open that one too!" A smile played on her lips, but dropped away abruptly.

"No! Don't open that door!"

"Oh… Ok then," Rose mumbled, taken aback by his sudden intensity.

"Open that door and you'd be sucked out into space, wouldn't want that. It's a bit cold."

"Alright, alright, I get it," she laughed. "Just tell me what to do next and get back to work." She could hear the sonic screwdriver fire back to life over the com as the Doctor started giving her instructions again.

"On your left, no right. Wait no… uh, right. Definitely right. Go to the wall, you should see a control panel over there." Rose giggled and walked over to the panel, the Doctor's embarrassed and distracted voice echoed over the com again, "It was on the left, wasn't it?"

"Yup!" she popped the p and laughed. "Now what?"

"The ship is being pulled into the gravity field of the planet so we need to get the engines back online before it picks up momentum and hits the atmosphere. I've repolarized the maglavite in the core and gotten the double diffusers online."

"Doctor."

"The only thing left is to get all these wires reconnected, easy-peasy when you've got a handy-dandy screwdriver, but I can't reboot the systems from here. The controls are always in the center of the ship in these models. Before long distance, remote control magnatrons were invented in 3017 all the controls had to be within range of the things they were commanding."

"Doctor!"

"What!?"

"English."

"Oh, right. Sorry. Uuuum… See the big red button labeled _systems reboot_? Push that." Rose tried to keep from laughing and stuck out her tongue as she followed her instructions.

"Ok, big red button pushed." Rose jerked around suddenly at a whooshing noise from behind her. She turned to see a door in the wall behind her that she could have sworn hadn't been there before opening up. A gush of frigid air struck her face and she shivered instantly. "Uhm.. Doctor? Big, scary, hidden door just opened up behind me. Was that supposed to 'appen?"

"Oh, must have shorted out the secondary systems," she heard him mumble. Then he responded louder, "Sorry, that was me, just ignore it." Rose was just about to snub him and take a step towards the dark room to investigate when he piped up again. "Hold on, did you say scary?"

"Yeah, scary and dark. And blimey! It's cold. Basically it gives me the creeps."

"Rose," his tone was warning, but she hardly noticed as she cocked her head to the side and squinted her eyes to see better.

"Yeah?" she replied distracted.

"Don't go in there. Wait until I get there, then we can check it out."

Rose stopped, suddenly feeling guilty, "I never said I would."

"Yeah, but you were thinking it." Rose blushed involuntarily and smiled quietly.

"Jus' one peep?" she hedged cheekily.

"Rose, focus. The panel."

"Oh alright…" she sighed and tore her eyes away from the opening and back to the panel behind her.

The Doctor started firing off instructions to her and she followed them expertly, surprising herself with how well she managed to keep up with his rambling. She was so focused on keeping her brain up to speed with his thousand mile per hour directions that she didn't even notice how stiff her fingers were getting from the cold that was spreading through the room.

"Ok done, blimey! Did I mention it was cold?" Then she noticed. She started rubbing her fingers together in an effort to unfreeze them.

"Good, alright. I'm on my down. Meet me in the console room and we can go from there…" Rose was shaking slightly and her every breath came out in a puff of white that seemed to grow in size and color every time. She was frankly starting to feel very happy about leaving the tiny room. She turned around and hurried over to the door, hunching into herself to try to fight the chill. When she reached the door she was surprised to see that it had closed, but she didn't really care until she yanked on the handle and it didn't budge. She tried it again several times but the handle was stuck.

"Doctor," she called but he didn't answer. "Doctor!" she called louder.

"Yeah?" he sounded surprised. "Hey, where are you? I just got to the console room, I thought I told you to meet me here."

"Doctor, the door 's stuck, you'll have to come get me." She couldn't keep the tremble out of her voice that her shaking was now causing.

"Oh ok, are you alright?" just then and horrible pain ripped through her Rose's core. She doubled over, clutching at her stomach and exhaling sharply. It felt like she had just had the wind knocked out of her lungs by a burst of freezing air that permeated the room in an instant.

"Rose? Rose!"

"Yeah…" she managed to gasp out, after recovering her breath and standing up slowly. "Yes, I'm alright. J-j-ust c-cold. I think that room must have been a freezer or something. Bugger," she laughed. "Just hurry up will ya?"

"I'm on my way. Be _right_ there," he sounded relieved. After a slight pause though, he continued, now sounding distracted, "Actually…"

"What'd you find?" Rose laughed.

"Think you can hold on a little longer?" he asked tentatively. Rose rolled her eyes and leaned her back against the door with her hands tucked tightly under her armpits.

"Just h-hurry up you fruit fly."

"Oi!" he protested and Rose laughed shakily.

~o0O0o~

The Doctor trotted down the corridor towards the room that had caught his attention. The ship they were on was deserted and had been for a long time. They had stopped by simply to fix up some of the engines so it wouldn't crash land on the closest planet. What had caught his eye, or rather his nose, turned out to be a rather rotten carcass of what may have been some kind of rat once. He was bending over to look at it more closely when he heard Rose's voice over the com and his blood ran cold with the fear in it.

"Doctor?"

"Rose, what's wrong?" he said standing up instantly.

"I'm n-no expert," her words were permeated with stutters from shivering. "But I d-d-don't think my h-hands are sup-posed to be turning b-b-blue." She inhaled sharply through her teeth just then, but instead of hearing her breathe out, the Doctor heard a thump which sounded like she had just slid down to the floor and she started making short gasping noises. For a moment he felt like he was frozen in place as he listened, terrified, for her to continue. When she didn't he prompted her, the fear bleeding through his voice.

"Rose?"

"I c-can't feel my legs." He bolted. He shot out of the room like a bullet from a gun and ran through the ship as fast as his legs would carry him. He practically slammed into the door that he knew led to the room Rose was trapped in.

"Rose!" he took out the sonic screwdriver and aimed it at the lock, then felt like swearing when it didn't budge. "Rose!" he called again, banging on the door this time. "Rose? Can you hear me?" but there was no reply. He hit the door screaming with all his might, "ROSE answer me!" he could barely hear her voice over the com but she replied.

"I'm s-s-so c-cold…" his hearts clenched.

"No no no no no NO NO… Rose! Listen to me! Stay awake! Can you hear me?" he began frantically trying to hack the deadlock on the door. "Stay. Awake. Just keep talking to me and don't close your eyes. Rose, say something. Talk to me!"

"D-doctor?"

"Yes! Rose, I'm right here," he was making progress but it was too slow, he had to speed it up. "Talk to me."

"I.. I can't…" she sounded panicked, but her voice was barely above a whisper. "I c-can't I can't b-b-bree breathe." That was when he lost it. He began pounding on the controls frantically, trying to get the door open while he screamed at Rose over and over again.

"Rose! Just keep your eyes open. Breath. Are you there? ROSE! Can you hear me!? Rose? ROSE!" But there was no reply. A few agonizing seconds of absolute silence ticked by and then with one final kick the deadlock cracked and the Doctor had the sonic on the door in an instant. He heaved it open as quickly as he could and instantly felt the piercing cold of an outer region freezer as it pierced through his own clothes and into his bones.

He darted in and found Rose's form lying on the ground behind the door. He grabbed her underneath her arms and dragged her out of the room, then turned and pulled the door closed behind him. When he turned back to Rose his breath caught in his throat. He bared his teeth and dropped to his knees, removing his coat as he did so. Rose head fell back limply when he lifted her to wrap his coat around her.

"Rose, come on. Open your eyes," he murmured, running his hand along her face. Her eyes were a deathly shade of black, her lips were so blue they looked just as dark and the rest of her skin stood out sharply pale in contrast. Her hair had specs of frost in it and it was stiff beneath his fingers when he brushed it out of her face. "Come on, come on," he repeated as he tried to get a hold of his shaking digits to take her pulse. All he felt was cold, soft skin.

"No," he growled and then gathered her up in his arms desperately. He carried her back to the TARDIS faster than he knew he was capable of moving while carrying an unconscious woman. The way her head jerked around limply when he moved broke his composure entirely. He snarled and cursed and when he reached the TARDIS doors he almost resorted to kicking them down before he found that they were already open.

He flew inside and kicked the doors closed behind him then ran over to the console chairs and slid Rose down onto them as gently as he could. As soon as he ensured that she was placed in such a way so that she wouldn't fall off he darted to the other side of the console and began pulling levers and pushing buttons in a crazed way that was nothing like his usual manic excitement. This was desperation and fear. He turned the heat up as far as it would go and then ran back over to Rose tearing his suit jacket off as he went.

He threw it to the side and lifted Rose up into a sitting position, then slid himself into the chair next to her and wrapped his arms around her torso, pulling her against himself. The cold skin of her forehead brushed his chest so he grabbed her head and pulled it securely under his chin where the sensation seared into his already burning skin. His fingers curled around her forehead and he pressed his chin into her hair like a child clutching its mother after a nightmare. He noticed for the first time that his breathing was frantic and labored, and once he noticed that he started noticing everything. He didn't care.

"Come on Rose," he gritted out through a clenched jaw. "Come on. You can do this. Come on, come on." His hand on her forehead began to slip from the sweat that was already seeping out of his every pore and he had to reaffirm his grip every few seconds. The stifling heat of the room grew with every second. It only served to make is breaths become jerkier and louder. Rose didn't move. His senses were on fire. He squeezed his eyes shut and held Rose tighter, willing every ounce of heat from his body to penetrate her skin. He was shaking. Rose hair was damp from the ice crystals that had melted into it. The glow of the TARDIS room penetrated through his closed eyelids.

After what seemed like ages he realized his breathing was slowing down abruptly. His senses numbed over. He pulled back and looked down at Rose's face, holding her up gently with one arm while the other cradled her head. When he saw her face the world faded out completely. Her lips were slightly parted, but they remained the same dark hue of blue and no breath played across them. Her eyes were gently shut but they looked like two black holes in contrast with her deathly pale skin.

 _She's dead._ A voice in his head whispered through the sudden stillness. _She's dead. She's gone._ His thumb began rubbing circles on her cheek. _She's gone, and it's my fault._ Something wet landed on her face and he didn't even register that it was his tear. Nothing registered. Nothing penetrated the sudden tunnel that had become his world. He was looking down at Rose's face and all he could think or feel was, _She's dead. She's gone. And it's my fault._ Without realizing it, he pulled her limp form back against his body and wrapped his arms around her, staring out into the distance. _Rose is dead. I killed my Rose._

Something from the world outside of his own mind nudged at him, but he couldn't bring himself to care. The world beyond no longer mattered. Then he felt it. His arms were shaking, but it wasn't him. In a flash quicker than lightning he had pulled her face back and a choked laugh sprang from his mouth at a nearly imperceptible sheen of sweat coating Rose's forehead. He ran his eyes down the rest of her body quickly and another, freer laugh lit up his face with a smile. Her whole body was shaking.

He pulled her back against his body and started rubbing her limbs fiercely.

"Come on Rose," he started begging again, but there was more hope in his voice than he dared admit to himself. "Open your eyes for me. Please, come on." His hands found her face and he cradled it with one while the other wrapped around her again to keep her within his embrace. Her eyes fluttered and he felt like his smile would burst his cheeks. "That's it. Come on Rose. Come back to me. Open your eyes," he suddenly couldn't bring his voice above a whisper.

Rose's eyes fluttered open and shut a few more times and then they opened and stayed that way. She looked around disoriented for a moment and then her gaze found the Doctor's. A weak smile twitched her lips.

"Hello," she whispered.

"Hi," the Doctor whispered back, his hand that was cradling her face was now stroking it gently.

"Doctor?" Rose said a little louder.

"Yes Rose?"

"Don't go into that room. It's cold in there." The Doctor laughed wetly and nodded his head at her.

"Just a bit, yeah." Rose's smile widened slightly. He ran his eyes all over her face and she smiled back up at him gently. A long moment later he forced himself to speak, "Come on, let's get you into some warmer clothes," he mumbled sliding his arm under her legs and easing her off of the chair.

"Who's gonna do that? You?" Rose's tongue poked lazily out of her mouth. The Doctor grinned cheekily back at her.

"Well, seeing as you can barely keep your eyes open at the moment, I don't think we have much of a choice."

"I'll slap you, you cheeky bum," Rose laughed tiredly.

"I'd love to see you try," the Doctor replied and carried her to her room, never once taking his eyes off of her.


End file.
